Mike "Joker" Guymon on Lake Forest will face Aaron Miller of Hacienda Heights on Nov. 2 at Long Beach Arena in a prelim for Bellator 106. ANA P. GUTIERREZ, FOR THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

FIGHT OF THE WEEK

PATRICIO 'PITBALL' FREIRE VS. FABRICIO GUERREIRO

When: Friday

Where: Kansas Star Arena, Wichita, Kan.

How to watch: Bellator 103 main card at 9 p.m. on Spike TV; Bellator 103 prelims at 4 p.m. on Spike.com.

Outlook: Freire (19-2), a former Bellator tournament winner, faces Guerreiro (19-2) in the semifinals of Bellator's Season 9 featherweight tournament at Bellator 103. The winner faces the Justin Wilcox-Joe Taimanglo winner in the tournament finals.

Prediction: Guerreiro has 12 submissions on his record, but his challenge will be securing a takedown to get Freire to the ground. Freire's hands and striking are just too potent for Guerreiro to deal with. Freire advances to the finals via knockout.

Record in 2013 picks: 25-9

CARLOS ARIAS

Bellator MMA is showcasing local talent on the prelims for Bellator 106 on Nov. 2 at Long Beach Arena.

Bellator officials announced three Bellator 106 prelims this week. UFC veteran Mike “Joker” Guymon (14-6-1) of Lake Forest will face Aaron Miller (14-8) of Hacienda Heights in a lightweight bout, Cleber Luciano (8-5) of Huntington Beach takes on Joe Camacho (13-18) of L.A. in a featherweight fight and Josh Smith (8-5) of Dana Point goes up against Darren Smith (4-3) of Irvine.

The Bellator 106 prelims will be streamed live on Spike.com leading into Bellator's first pay-per-view event.

UFC veteran and commentator Kenny Florian isn't satisfied with the quality of judging in MMA, and the veteran of 17 fights has some suggestions.

“Another huge problem with judging is that we haven't really assigned values to specific techniques that are executed cleanly in the UFC,” Florian wrote on FoxSports.com. “What value is a takedown vs. a clean cross to the jaw? Is a knockdown valued the same as a near submission? Is a person going backward but landing punches not as effective vs. a person going forward and eating punches? Is a high-amplitude takedown better than a foot sweep? These questions can be difficult to answer especially when seeing them performed at full speed in the context of a back-and-forth mixed martial arts contest. ” …

There is no question UFC 145-pound champion Jose Aldo and UFC 155-pound champion Anthony Pettis want to meet, but the fight remains on hold. Aldo is recovering from a broken foot suffered in his TKO victory over Chan Sung Jung at UFC 163 and Pettis has his first title defense against Josh Thomson at UFC on Fox 9 on Dec. 14 in Sacramento.

Aldo reveled during Tuesday’s Q&A with fans in Barueri, Brazil, that he asked the UFC to move up in weight and challenge Pettis.

“Many people talked about moving up (to 155 pounds), and I’ve asked for that,” Aldo said. “But (Aldo's coach) Andre (Pederneiras) and Dana (White, UFC president) said it wasn’t the right moment. Moving up to lightweight is closer and closer. When they think it’s time to move up, I’ll do it no problem.”

“Many fans talked about it, and we’re waiting to do this super fight. But they matched him (against Josh Thomson). If it was up to me it would have already happened at any weight. I’m an employee and I don’t see any problem with that. I wanted (to fight Pettis) at 155 pounds, of course. He has his title and he wouldn’t be able to steal mine (laughs).” ...

Mark Munoz of Lake Forest and former UFC light-heavyweight champion Lyoto Machida have trained together in the past, which will give both of them advantages and disadvantages when they hook up at UFC Fight Night 30 on Oct. 26 in Manchester, England.

“We always look for better training so we ended up training together,” Machida told MMAFighting.com. It’s complicated, but it’s tough for both of us. I’ve learned some things from his game, but he did too.

“Mark Munoz was always very friendly, gave me tips during trainings. We helped each other a lot. But we were training together, it’s not like he was teaching me. You test yourself a lot during sparring.”

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